Doing Simple.Honest.Work.

The design process we employ at Simple.Honest.Work. delivered at Web Directions 2014.

Transcript

1. Doing Simple.Honest.Work. @SimpleScott That’s me! Say hi.
2. Four years ago…
13. Simple.Honest.Work. We create physical and digital experiences that possess the qualities we expect of the world. We clarify the confused, illuminate the mundane, and humanize the technological.
14. Simple.Honest.Work. Guiding Principles: Be Collaborative Solve Problems Process-Driven
27. Great work doesn’t happen on it’s own.
28. All creation is a process.
29. All processes need structure.
30. As designers we know this.
31. But most of our clients & collaborators probably do not.
32. We’ve all heard…
33. Just be creative.
34. I redid the homepage in Powerpoint.
35. The button doesn’t look clickable.
36. The wireframes look too box-y.
37. Designers, this is our fault.
38. We need to stop rolling our eyes.
39. We need to be the guide.
40. We need to provide the structure.
41. Establishing a process can be our guide.
42. Simple.Honest.Process.
43. 1. Understand
44. 2. Approach
45. 3. Solve
46. 4. Accomplish
47. 5. Analyze
48. 6. Enhance
49. Understand Approach Accomplish Solve Analyze Enhance
50. Understand Approach Accomplish Solve Analyze Enhance
51. Let’s take a closer look.
53. Clarifying Strategy Questioning Planning Workshopping Requirements Gathering Understand
57. There’s a lot of work to do…
58. What’s a brand?
59. The Elements of a Brand Vi Mi Pe Pd Pr Vo Va St Of Cu Na Me Ta Tp Lo Im Ba Co To Vision Mission Personality Values What really makes you, you? What do you make or do for others? How you talk about what you make or do. How you visualize it all. Style Products Offerings Processes Culture Voice Naming Messaging Tagline Typography Logo Brand Architecture Color Imagery Touchpoints Get to the Core What really makes you, you? Do for others What do you do for others? Communicate it How do you describe what you do? Visualize it How do you visualize it all? Understand Solutions
60. The Elements of a Brand Vi Mi Pe Pd Pr Vo Va St Of Cu Na Me Ta Tp Lo Im Ba Co To Vision Mission Personality Values What really makes you, you? What do you make or do for others? How you talk about what you make or do. How you visualize it all. Style Products Offerings Processes Culture Voice Naming Messaging Tagline Typography Logo Brand Architecture Color Imagery Touchpoints
61. How did this start? How do you describe your mission? What are the guiding principles? Describe what success looks like? On and on and on… Get to the core
62. The Elements of a Brand Vi Mi Pe Pd Pr Vo Va St Of Cu Na Me Ta Tp Lo Im Ba Co To Vision Mission Personality Values What really makes you, you? What do you make or do for others? How you talk about what you make or do. How you visualize it all. Style Products Offerings Processes Culture Voice Naming Messaging Tagline Typography Logo Brand Architecture Color Imagery Touchpoints
63. Are you innovative or traditional? Are you simple or complex? Are you fun or are you serious? Can you be both experimental and tested? How? What are your brand attributes?
64. Brand attributes
65. Brand attributes
66. If the company were a car? If the company was a fashion brand? If the company were a celebrity? If the company were an animal? Describe the brand’s personality?
67. What images describe the company? Do you like serif typefaces or sans-serif? Do you like elegant and sophisticated? Or simple and geometric? This is really hard for people to answer. Describe the brand’s style?
76. The Elements of a Brand Vi Mi Pe Pd Pr Vo Va St Of Cu Na Me Ta Tp Lo Im Ba Co To Vision Mission Personality Values What really makes you, you? What do you make or do for others? How you talk about what you make or do. How you visualize it all. Style Products Offerings Processes Culture Voice Naming Messaging Tagline Typography Logo Brand Architecture Color Imagery Touchpoints
77. What are your products? How do you define the process of creating? What makes you different than competitors? How would you describe the culture? What do you do?
78. The Elements of a Brand Vi Mi Pe Pd Pr Vo Va St Of Cu Na Me Ta Tp Lo Im Ba Co To Vision Mission Personality Values What really makes you, you? What do you make or do for others? How you talk about what you make or do. How you visualize it all. Style Products Offerings Processes Culture Voice Naming Messaging Tagline Typography Logo Brand Architecture Color Imagery Touchpoints
79. The most successful brands are those 
 that most effectively correspond to fundamental patterns in the unconscious mind, patterns known as archetypes. - Margaret Mark, The Hero
80. Regular Guy / Gal Lover Caregiver Innocent Creator Ruler What archetype aligns with your business? Explorer Sage Hero Jester Magician Outlaw
81. The Elements of a Brand Vi Mi Pe Pd Pr Vo Va St Of Cu Na Me Ta Tp Lo Im Ba Co To Vision Mission Personality Values What really makes you, you? What do you make or do for others? How you talk about what you make or do. How you visualize it all. Style Products Offerings Processes Culture Voice Naming Messaging Tagline Typography Logo Brand Architecture Color Imagery Touchpoints
82. Brand Touchpoints Environments Experiences Websites Newsletters Business Forms Signage Packaging Public Relations Blogs Exhibits Proposals Emails Voicemails Publications Web Banners Letterhead Social Media Sales Business Cards Billboards Ephemera Vehicles Services Products Employees Advertising Sound Speeches Presentations Networking Telephone Word of mouth Trade shows Direct mail Videos
83. Research Qualitative Interviews Competitive Analysis Gut Test Brand Messaging Approach
86. 20 Second Gut Test Purpose: Test your hypothesis Clear up any confusion Get the group aligned Get more details
92. Conceptual Thinking Sketching / Ideating Designing Feedback Gathering Information Architecture (Content) Wireframe (Layout) Solve
107. Prototyping Building Scaling Feasibility Debugging Launching Accomplish
108. In The Tank
109. Wonkiness meets timeliness meets editorial Editorial Tone
111. Personality Time Editorial AnOther Billionaire The Believer The Brander The Carpetbagger The Chicagoan The Economist Editor Entrepreneur Esquire The Gentlewoman Hobo Magazine Kinfolk The Mavenist The New Yorker Opinionator The Oregonian Scientific American Washingtonian The Guardian Daily Beast Daily News Gentlewoman’s Quarterly Newsweek Newsday The Moment The Occasional Saturday’s Magazine Think Quarterly Time Travel Almanac The Weekender The Week The Weekly Standard Women’s Wear Daily USA Today Times Herald Press Reporter Gazette News Journal Courier Review Tribune Record Sun Observer Eye Weekly Forum
112. Time The Week The Weekly Standard Newsweek Editorial The Atlantic The Wall Street Journal The New Republic Personality The Mavenist The New Yorker The Economist
113. The Weekly Wonk
120. Simple.Honest.Work. Zee.Aero Brand Presentation Confidential. Simple.Honest.Work. New America Visual Identity Confidential. Simple.Honest.Work.
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134. Data gathering Questioning A/B Testing User Testing Surveys Analyze
135. Back to the beginning. Enhance
136. Start somewhere.
137. Be empirical.
138. Keep iterating.
139. Bring people into the process.
140. Use process to distract dissent.
141. Wear many hats.
142. Keep it simple.